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How credit unions can become holistic wealth managers for their members

State-of-the-art technology can enable credit unions to become financial hubs for their members

By Justin Steitz, Chief Operating Officer, Copper Financial

Credit unions have long histories in their respective communities. They have seen families and small businesses go through good times and bad across multiple generations—and in some cases, for more than a century.

When it comes to knowing their members’ financial circumstances and goals, credit unions have much greater familiarity—based on personal relationships—and advantage over national banks or large investment institutions.

Since credit unions know their members so well, they are better positioned to advise on other areas of their members’ financial lives beyond checking, savings, and loan accounts.

The reason for this is because it can often be very challenging for credit unions to operate as broker-dealers and registered investment advisers (RIAs) that can offer the additional wealth management services that their members would want. Acquiring the technology, tools, and expertise necessary for expanding their business capabilities and meeting broker-dealer and RIA regulatory requirements can be especially difficult and costly.

However, the right technology partner can make it easy for credit unions to offer wealth management services that their members want. Unfortunately, many of the big-name, legacy FinTech and WealthTech providers are not credit unions, so they don’t understand the needs and pain points of credit unions in today’s ever-changing financial services marketplace. For example, credit unions where the majority of members have smaller-sized accounts may not be able to provide its members with access to investment products and portfolios which require high minimum investment amounts.

A CUSO That Can Help

Copper Financial was founded as a Credit Union Service Organization (“CUSO”), so we know that not all credit unions—and, just as importantly, not all credit union members—are the same. We work with you to identify the best way for you to provide full-service brokerage and advisory programs for your members. We take the time to create the right solution for every credit union, so that all member needs can be met.

Copper Financial (“Copper”) is a broker-dealer and RIA, and works solely with credit unions, as part of its mission to provide their members with access to a robust suite of investment and financial planning services.

Copper’s unified, cloud-based technology platform offers credit unions all of the practice management tools and automated investment workflows they need to service their members and their families. Crucially, our technology includes a member portal that sits within the credit unions online banking system. This means members can view data on their checking, savings, and loan accounts alongside information about their investments all in one place—enabling credit unions to become their members’ main digital financial hubs. Our portal offers single-sign-on integration with a credit union’s banking provider, making it possible for members to seamlessly access their investment data without having to log into multiple systems.

As the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding—and credit union members appreciate the investment experience we provide. We are owned by CommunityAmerica Credit Union, and its members who are clients of Copper are twice as likely to be highly engaged as those without a Copper relationship. In addition, CommunityAmerica members that utilize Copper technology and services have twice the amount of deposit and loan balances with CommunityAmerica, and keep eight times more assets there, than their counterparts who don’t take advantage of our investment experience.

Meanwhile, the Bank Insurance & Securities Association (BISA) has found that households which purchase an investment through their primary bank or credit union are 28% more likely to not switch to another institution.

Contact Copper Financial today to find out how we can work with you to significantly strengthen relationships with your members and lay the foundation for scalable growth.

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